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nd about; to involve or envelop. Dwelling in a pleasant glade, With mountains round about environed. Spenser. Environed he was with many foes. Shak. Environ me with darkness whilst I write. Donne.

Act of environing; state of being environed.

arts or places which surround another place, or lie in its neighborhood; suburbs; as, the environs of a city or town. Chesterfield.

The science of the human species as to geographical distribution and environment. Broadly, it includes industrial, commercial, and political geography, and that part of ethnology which deals with distribution and physical environment. -- An`thro*po*ge*og"ra*pher (#), n. -- An`thro*po*ge`o*graph"ic*al (#), a.…

f the laws of the development of the human organism in relation to other organisms and to environment. -- An`thro*po*nom"ic*al (#), a.

Surrounded; furnished; beset; environed (as in woe-begone). [Obs.] Gower. Chaucer.

To circumscribe or go round so as to surround closely; to encircle; to inclose; to environ; as, a ring encompasses the finger; an army encompasses a city; a voyage encompassing the world. Shak. A question may be encompassed with difficulty. C. J. Smith. The love of all thy sons encompass thee. Tennyson.…

or habit of a species, or group of species, esp. with reference to its adaptation to its environment.

To inclose; to environ; to shut in. Those sleeping stones, That as a waist doth girdle you about. Shak.

den fringe. Spenser. To hem about, around, or in, to inclose and confine; to surround; to environ. "With valiant squadrons round about to hem." Fairfax. "Hemmed in to be a spoil to tyranny." Daniel. -- To hem out, to shut out. "You can not hem me out of London." J. Webster.

do. And dogs in corners set them down to howl. Drayton. Methought a legion of foul fiends Environ'd me about, and howled in my ears. Shak.

The specific signification of in is situation or place with respect to surrounding, environment, encompassment, etc. It is used with verbs signifying being, resting, or moving within limits, or within circumstances or conditions of any kind conceived of as limiting, confining, or investing, either wholly or in part. In…

in consequence of a secondary adaptation of the embryo to the peculiar conditions of its environment; -- distinguished from palingenesis. [Written also cænogenesis.]

pecies and genera, are produced in animals and plants by the direct influence of physical environments, and esp., in the case of animals, by effort, or by use or disuse of certain organs.

Environment.

natural selection supposes that this has been brought about mainly by gradual changes of environment which have led to corresponding changes of structure, and that those forms which have become so modified as to be best adapted to the changed environment have tended to survive and leave similarly adapted descendants,…

maintaining that the offspring inherits characters acquired by the parent from change of environment, use or disuse of parts, etc.; -- opposed of Neo-Darwinism (which see, above). -- Ne`o-La*marck"i*an, a. & n.

Hence, the outer portion of any place; an adjacent district; environs; neighborhood. "The purlieus of St. James." brokers had been incessantly plying for custom in the purlieus of the court. Macaulay.

ing; a matter; a point. Res gestæ Etym: [L., things done] (Law), the facts which form the environment of a litigated issue. Wharton. -- Res judicata [L.] (Law), a thing adjudicated; a matter no longer open to controversy.

haracteristic of both animal and vegetable organisms, and not restrained or cheked by the environment.